


Whispers

by WorryinglyInnocent



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV), Stargate Universe
Genre: F/M, Pregnancy, Rushbelle, Smut, life on Destiny
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-20
Updated: 2018-08-20
Packaged: 2019-06-30 02:35:14
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15742389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WorryinglyInnocent/pseuds/WorryinglyInnocent
Summary: A few months after their arrival on Destiny, Dr Belle French has fallen pregnant. There are several rumours flying around the ship as to who the father could be, but no-one has actually taken it upon themselves to ask Belle herself, leading her to wonder if the rest of the crew really is so oblivious to her long-term relationship with Dr Rush.





	Whispers

Stranded on a spaceship in the middle of a galaxy far, far away, without access to reliable contraception methods, everyone knew that it was only going to be a matter of time before there was a pregnancy. Most people had been expecting it on some level or another.

No-one had been expecting it to be Belle French, though.

As their resident xenobotanist, Dr French spent the vast majority of her days ensconced in the ever-expanding hydroponics lab, and she generally kept herself to herself. She was friends with the rest of the science team, and thanks to their long partnership on Icarus, she was probably the only person to whom Rush would ever concede, but even so, she had never seemed very close to any single person in particular.

As soon as it became obvious that Belle was expecting, the inevitable whispers began. Who was the father? Belle had never been seen to be remotely demonstrative with any of the men on board Destiny; she didn’t appear to be in a long-term relationship with anyone. Was this the unfortunate repercussion of an ill-fated one-night stand?

Naturally, with so many rumours and whispers flying around the ship, Belle found herself at the centre of attention all the time, and she wanted nothing more than for a hole to open up in the floor and swallow her whole.

It was after a particularly trying shift in hydroponics, when even Lisa, whom she had considered a friend on board Destiny, had been giving her odd looks, that she finally snapped, running back to her quarters as fast as her aching back and swollen ankles could take her, tears misting her vision as she palmed the door lock and threw herself down on her bed, finally giving in to loud, snotty sobs. It was all she had been able to do not to lash out in frustration at her situation. Why was everyone on the ship so blind to what was right in front of their noses?

Once she’d cried herself dry, she wiped her eyes on the back of her hand and reached for her radio, tuning it in to Nick’s frequency.

“Nick? Are you there? Where are you?”

She knew how choked and tearful she sounded, but she had long since passed the point of caring.

_“I’m fixing up some new statistics for the shields in the console room,”_  Nick replied a moment later.  _“Are you all right? You sound like you’ve been crying.”_

“I have been. It’s just been a generally shitty day and I want it to be over right now.”

In the console room, Rush tapped his screen to send it into sleep mode, and he rubbed his forehead with a sigh. These last few months had been tough on both of them; finding out about the pregnancy had nearly spelled the end of their relationship. Children had never been on the roadmap for them, and Rush had never had any intention or desire to become a father. He was still terrified by the prospect even now, after all the arguments and soul-searching and the decision to keep the baby.

It had been infinitely worse for Belle, though. For a start, she was the one actually carrying the baby and going through not only all the usual pregnancy difficulties but also all the additional ones that came from being on Destiny. Secondly, nobody seemed to have cottoned onto the fact that he was the father, and instead of just asking her outright, they had deemed it politer to assiduously avoid the subject when speaking to her and just whisper behind her back instead. Belle, being her sometimes infuriatingly stubborn self, had decided that she wasn’t simply going to volunteer the information if no-one asked for it, saying that if they couldn’t see that she and Rush were together and had been for a while, then they didn’t deserve to know. Rush, used to secrecy and trusting only himself, was of the same mindset, however tempting it had been to just stand on a table in the mess and make the announcement that he was the father of Belle’s baby and they’d been together since Icarus so please leave them the fuck alone.

Rush snarled, angry at the rest of the crew for making Belle so stressed at a time when she really needed as calm an environment as possible.

“I’m on my way,” he said. The shields could wait. Belle needed him now.

He made his way to her room and knocked before palming the lock. Belle was lying on her side, curled up and facing away from him; Rush kicked off his shoes and lay down beside her, staring up at the ceiling.

“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked.

“No.” Belle reached behind her and found his hand, squeezing tightly. “If I talk about it, I’ll only start yelling about how unfair it all is.” She sighed. “Sorry, you’ve got better things to do than keep me company in my misery.”

“They can wait.”

Belle gave a soft huff of laughter. “Coming from the most impatient man not currently on a planet, that means a lot. I love you too.”

“It is the way it is,” Rush said. “It’s one of those things that we just have to live with.”

“I just wish that people would put two and two together.” Belle sighed again. “Is it really so hard to tell that we’re in a relationship? It’s not like we don’t spend a lot of time together, have quarters next to each other and are always generally in one room or another. Just because we’re not sucking each other’s faces off every five minutes doesn’t mean that we’re not a couple.”

When they had first become an item back on Icarus, they had done so on the mutual understanding that they would remain discreet and professional in their working relationship to avoid lines being muddled. It was something that they had carried over seamlessly onto Destiny, but now it seemed like their lack of public demonstration was coming back to bite them.

Rush turned over onto his side and spooned up behind Belle, taking her in his arms.

“We could always just tell everyone,” he said. “It would save a lot of stress.”

“I know. But you know me, and I know you. We’re not that type. I just wish that someone had the guts to ask me to my face. Can you believe that it’s been nearly five months and not even TJ has asked me who the father is? You’d think that someone would bite the bullet sooner or later.”

“Well, you know my opinion.”

“That everyone else on the ship is a moron? Yes, you’ve said so once or twice before. I was always inclined to be more forgiving, but I’m beginning to think that you’re right.”

Belle turned over awkwardly with a huff. Her bump was definitely noticeable now, no-one could deny it or put it down to anything other than pregnancy, although she could still hide it under loose clothing. According to TJ, there were four and a half months to go before she was due, and Rush was dreading it. If anything went wrong because they were in the middle of nowhere several thousand light years from the nearest maternity unit, then he didn’t know what he’d do. Ironically, Belle was lot calmer about that part of the whole thing. Someone could swap with an obstetrician on the stones, and it wasn’t as if they had absolutely no medical supplies. Women had given birth safely in worse circumstances.

“Thank you for coming,” Belle said. Her kiss started off soft, but then she was pouring everything she had into it, carding her fingers into his hair and pushing her tongue between his lips. Rush opened for her readily. He was quite pleased that thus far, the only craving that Belle seemed to be experiencing was for him, and he felt his cock beginning to react to her nearness and the obvious need in her kiss. He ran his hand down her side, dipping into the waistband of the fatigues she’d started wearing when her jeans became too tight.

“Have you got time?” she asked, grabbing the hem of his shirts.

“When it comes to you and this bed, I have all the time in the world,” Rush growled, unfastening the fatigues. Belle wrestled him out of his shirts before he could get a hand in, but then he was raking his fingers through her soft curls to find a ready wetness pooling at her entrance.

“Kiss me, Nick.”

Belle pulled her shirt off. Her breasts were swollen and sore, and Rush kept his touches to her nipples featherlight as he kissed each of the hard buds in turn.

“I love you so much,” Belle gasped as he kicked his jeans off and helped her out of her trousers. “I couldn’t do this without you.”

“Well, without me you wouldn’t be in this position at all.”

Belle just laughed, batting his chest playfully and pushing him over onto his back. Rush was happy to oblige and go wherever she wanted him. Seeing her riding him like a wild goddess was always wonderful, and her returned his hand to her folds, stroking little circles around her clit.

“Feels good?” he asked.

Belle nodded, hands braced against his shoulders as her hips jerked, pushing up against his fingers.

“So, so good.”

He slipped a finger into her entrance, her inner walls clutching around him greedily as he added another. She was grunting with pleasure above him, her eyes closed and her head thrown back, and God, she looked so beautiful like that. Pregnancy really had made her glow.

She cried out as she came, his name a breathy sob from her lips, and Rush pulled his fingers out of her, tracing little patterns over her hips to bring her through into the afterglow.

Belle looked down at him as she came back to herself, her eyes soft and sleepy.

“Oh, Nick,” she breathed. “My Nick.”

She resettled herself on top of him, taking his cock in hand and stroking him to full hardness, rubbing little circles over the tip of him before she lined them up, sinking down onto him slowly and beginning to rock her hips. She felt heavenly, she always did, and Rush dug his fingers into her ass cheeks as he thrust up to meet her.

“Belle!”

He came buried inside her. There wasn’t a lot of point in trying to be careful, after all. The damage was already done.

She let him slip out of her and lay down beside him, snuggling in close to his side.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“It was my pleasure. I know you needed it.” Rush stroked her sweaty hair out of her face.

“More than you can imagine.”

They lay in silence for a while in the cooling, just enjoying being together, until Belle’s breathing began to even out.

“Belle, love, I’m going back to work,” Rush whispered to her. “I’ll be back when I’ve finished.”

She nodded without opening her eyes. “Go off and save the galaxy.”

“Will do.” He chuckled. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

He got up and pulled his clothes back on, slipping out of the room quietly and making his way back to the console room. Eli was there, fiddling with one of the kinos. He acknowledged Rush’s presence and they both worked in companionable silence for a while, although Rush could tell that there was something on the younger man’s mind from the way that Eli’s eyes kept sliding over to Rush every few minutes.

Finally, Rush looked up from his console and fixed Eli with a pointed stare.

“Do you have something that you would like to get off your chest, Eli?” he asked.

“No, no. Nothing at all.”

“Good. In that case, perhaps you could let me get on with my work without feeling like I’m being watched like a hawk all the time.”

Eli looked down at the kinos guiltily.

“I was just thinking that you spend a lot of time with Dr French,” he said eventually. “She’s been so closed off recently, for obvious reasons, and it seems like you’re the only person she can tolerate, which is ironic, in a way.”

“Perhaps it’s because I’m the only person on the ship who still sees her as a person and not a pregnancy,” Rush muttered. He didn’t look up from the console again, but he could feel Eli’s stare on him and he returned it with a glare and an impatient sigh.

“Is there a singular burning question on your mind that everyone’s dying to ask but no-one has yet plucked up the courage to actually give voice to?”

Eli’s expression said it all, but he didn’t say anything, instead making a hasty retreat with the kinos. Rush sighed heavily and leaned against the console. At least there was some hope of Eli putting two and two together before the baby arrived.

X

Dozing along in a happy, post-coital haze, Belle reflected on her relationship with Nick, and the journey that the two of them had been on since her pregnancy had started. Well, rollercoaster would probably be a more accurate description. Journey didn’t quite cut it.

It had very nearly broken them. Nick didn’t see himself as father material, especially not in their current precarious circumstances. He had enough other things to worry about with adding a baby into the mix. His own childhood hadn’t exactly been stellar, and Destiny was no place to raise a child. But they’d talked (and yelled, and fucked) it all over, and they’d finally come through to a good and solid place. Nick was working tirelessly to get them home, the prospect of starting a family and beginning a brand-new chapter of his life as a father being the catalyst that he had needed to finally let go of the guilt that had been driving him to discover all of Destiny’s secrets at all costs. It was a new beginning for both of them; not just the birth of their child but a rebirth for Belle and Nick too. In this new life that they had created together, there was absolution from everything that had come before.

She woke up when Nick entered the room again; she didn’t bother checking to see how long he had been away. He was back now, and that was all that mattered.

He slipped into bed beside her and kissed the nape of her neck, taking her in his arms. These were the moments that she lived for, when it was just her and Nick and neither of them had to worry about work.

“I think Eli is beginning to realise,” he said quietly.

“Good,” Belle muttered. “Well, not good if all it does is fuel further speculation, but good that someone might finally be getting the right end of the stick. Eli’s not exactly the best at keeping secrets, maybe word will get round soon.”

She sighed, and snuggled further into Nick’s embrace. “What do you think people will say when they realise?”

“I don’t know,” Nick replied. “Hopefully something along the lines of ‘sorry for putting you through four and a half months of stress because none of us actually wanted to ask you who knocked you up’.”

Belle reached behind her and smacked his arm playfully. “You’re terrible.”

“I know, but you love me for it.” Nick’s hand came down to rest on her bump. They’d yet to feel any kicking, but they could definitely feel that there was something there, growing with every day and getting ever closer to coming into the world.

“Are you sure you’re going to be all right?” Nick asked after a short pause.

Belle nodded, and wriggled out of his arms so that she could turn over and face him, slipping her own arms around his neck and nuzzling his nose.

“I’m going to be fine,” she promised him. “Nothing is going to happen to me or the baby.”

“You can’t know that, though,” Nick muttered. It wasn’t the first time that she had known him to be so concerned about her and so worried about the future, but every time she heard that fear in his voice, her heart both swelled and broke just a little bit more. Nick was every bit as scared about this pregnancy as she was, and contrary to what many of their colleagues might think when the truth finally did dawn on them, it had nothing to do with the havoc that a baby would cause to his working life. Belle could well understand his worry about her. After losing Gloria, he was determined that he wasn’t going to lose anyone else he loved, be it Belle or their unborn child. He knew how risky these few months were going to be, and at first he hadn’t been able to believe that Belle would take that risk.

_“We might be stuck out here forever, Nick,”_  she had told him.  _“I’m not giving up my chance to have a family with you because of the risks that we face now. We may never be free from those risks, we have no idea of what might be around the corner. Me having this baby is no more dangerous than any mission planet-side to a place we’ve never been to before. We’re past the point of arguing about danger now. Everything out here is already so dangerous that it seems stupid to be worrying about this pregnancy. We may never return to Earth, Nick! There may never be a more convenient time to discuss family planning! These are the cards we’ve been dealt!”_

She knew that she was putting herself at risk, and she wondered if perhaps she was being selfish, bringing a child into this strange world that they might be living in for who knew how long. At the same time, though, Belle couldn’t think of a safer place in the universe for a child to grow up than here on Destiny, surrounded by people who would always put its best interests at heart. Whatever happened, Belle knew that she and Nick were never going to give up on each other or their child.

“Nick, my love.” Belle stroked his hair out of his face, running a hand over his chin where his beard was getting to be rather unruly again. “I need you to be strong for me now. I know that you can do this; I know that you can be a father and I know that you’re afraid. I am too, so much. But we can get through it together, I know that we can.”

Nick sighed, leaning into her touch. It was a mark of how much he trusted her that he actively sought out her hands and skin contact with her whenever they were alone together. He was not a tactile person by any stretch of the imagination, and he would usually shake off the hands of anyone else on board the ship who might touch him casually.

“I love you,” he said. He didn’t offer anything else, didn’t say that he would try not to be afraid or that he would try to be stronger for her. He said all that in those three little words.

“I love you too,” she replied before closing her eyes and allowing herself to drift off again, feeling safe in his embrace. Screw the rest of the ship and what it might think of her, of him. They were together, and that was all she needed.

X

When Eli walked into hydroponics the next day looking rather furtive, Belle thought that she knew what was coming. After four and a half months, it was finally going to be the moment of truth.

There was a heavy silence in the air and Belle knew that Eli was working up to ask her something, probably regarding the identity of the baby’s father. There was absolutely no reason for him to be in hydroponics unless someone else had sent him on an errand, and if that was the case, then he probably would have got on with asking for whatever it was that whoever it was needed by now.

She looked over at him, smiling politely.

“What can I do for you, Eli?” she asked.

“I, erm… TJ sent me,” he finished. “To get some, erm…”

“Space tea-tree?” Belle suggested, indicating the herbs growing in troughs beside her. They’d discovered the plant early on in their gate excursions and it had proved to be extremely useful as a natural antiseptic.

“Yeah, that.” Eli looked relieved at having an out, and he hung around, fidgeting nervously, as Belle searched for her scissors and began to carefully snip off a few stalks of the medicinal plant.

“So… Belle…” he began again. Belle just looked at him, raising an eyebrow to encourage him to go on. She put down the scissors. If this was the moment that she thought it was going to be, then she probably ought not to have any sharp implements in her hands at the time.

“Yes, Eli?”

“You spend a lot of time with Rush.”

She nodded. “Yes. I do. Is that really so surprising to everyone?”

“No, no, I think it’s good that he has at least one person who backs him up sometimes.”

Belle just snorted. “Is there anything else that you wanted to say, Eli, or were you just making the observation that Nick and I spend a lot of time in each other’s company?”

“I was just wondering, I mean, I know that it’s probably an insensitive question, but well, you call him Nick when everyone else calls him Rush, and…”

“It’s his name, Eli.”

“Yes, I know, I just… Is he the father? Of the baby?”

Belle straightened from where she was crouched beside the space tea-tree and raised her arms in mock jubilation.

“And kaching! Eli Wallace finally asks the sixty-four thousand dollar question that no-one else has had the balls to ask even though they’ve had four and a half months in which to ask it. And the answer is yes, Nick is this baby’s father. Who else was it going to be?”

Eli spread his hands. “Like, literally anyone. Well, any of the guys. I mean, apart from me, because I would definitely remember if that had happened.”

“Ok Eli, I’ll rephrase that. Who else was it going to be apart from the man I’ve been in a romantic and sexual relationship with _for_   _over a year_?”

“What?” Eli blinked. “You and Rush?”

“Yes.”

“In a relationship?”

“Yes.”

“For over a year?”

“Yes! Is that really so hard to comprehend? Is it really not obvious to everyone?”

“No!” Eli exclaimed. “No, it is really not obvious at all. You have separate bedrooms!”

“Which are right next door to each other,” Belle pointed out. “And we’re generally always either in one or the other, but everyone needs their own space. It’s like office space; we both had separate offices on Icarus.”

“But you don’t do any couple things!” Eli spluttered. “Like… I don’t know. Kissing. Hugging. Casual touching. Little things, like hands on the small of the back, getting into each other’s personal space without a problem, that kind of thing.”

“You’ve never seen me get into Nick’s personal space?” Belle asked incredulously.

“Well, ok, you do get physically closer to him than anyone else does, but I assumed that was because you were friends and he trusts you more than everyone else.”

“We are friends and he does trust me more than everyone else. We also happen to love each other and be expecting a child together. I don’t get why this is so incomprehensible!”

Belle knew that she was overreacting, but the truth was that she hadn’t really known how she would feel when someone finally did take it upon themselves to learn the truth. She was relieved that it was finally out there, but at the same time, the fact that Eli just couldn’t seem to believe that it was true was making her so incredibly frustrated that she was glad she’d already put the scissors down.

“It’s just…” Eli backed up a few steps; she must be looking more ferocious than she thought and she tried to tone it down. Pregnancy had dialled everything up to eleven for her. “You don’t act like a couple when you’re working on the ship.”

“Because we’re professional, Eli.” Belle sighed. The brief burst of fight that she’d had in her was dying away, replaced with the aches and pains of pregnancy. She rubbed her back and Eli grabbed a crate, helping her to sit down on it. “When we began our relationship back on Icarus, we drew a line in the sand. We weren’t going to let it affect our work, and you know Nick. If he’s out here, if he’s not in one of our rooms, then he’s always working. Most of the time, I am as well. We’re working. We’re professional. So, no, we don’t do public displays of affection, we don’t kiss or hug or do casual touching just for the purpose of making it obvious that we’re together.”

Eli nodded. “Ok, I can understand that. I guess I’d be complaining just as much if you were making gooey eyes at each other over the consoles all the time.”

Belle gave a snort of laughter. “Can you imagine that? Maybe I should mention it to Nick as a way of pissing Young off.”

“Considering how much Rush manages to piss off Young already, I don’t think that he needs any help in that respect.”

“Yeah, you’re right.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes, breathing in the clean and fresh scents of the plants and herbs growing all around them. Belle always felt safe in hydroponics. If she could nurture these delicate plants, then she knew that she could nurture her baby as well. She could keep these little seedlings alive in such adverse conditions, so she should be able to keep her child alive.

“Do you want me to keep it a secret?” Eli asked. “That Rush is the father, I mean.”

Belle shook her head. “No. You can tell as many people as you like. Tell the whole ship if you want. There’s nothing secret about it. I’m quite happy for it to be common knowledge.”

“So if that’s the case, why didn’t you just tell everyone yourself?”

“Because up until now, no-one’s asked. Everyone thought it would be better just to set the rumour mill going instead. No-one, until you, has ever actually asked me who the father of my child is.”

“Wow.” Eli seemed to be digesting this for a long time. Her pregnancy had been common knowledge for a while now, and he was evidently having trouble processing the fact that really, no-one had ever asked her about the parentage.

He got to his feet again, handing back the stems of tea-tree that she’d cut for him.

“TJ didn’t really send me,” he admitted.

Belle smiled. “I guessed.” She took back the stems and set about replanting them. “They’re hardy little things though. They’ll survive and put down new roots. Like all of us putting down new roots on Destiny, I suppose.”

Eli laughed. “I guess you’re right. Well, good luck with everything. And I hope that the baby’s ok. Still can’t quite get the image of Rush as a dad out of my head, but that’s my problem. I’ll see you around.”

“See you later, Eli.”

He left the hydroponics lab and Belle sat back on her crate, stretching out her legs in front of her. Perhaps now, things would become slightly less stressful.

X

As soon as Eli started spreading the word that Rush and Belle were in a long-term relationship and as such, he was naturally the father of her baby, the whispers on Destiny died away to nothing as if they had never been there. Belle no longer received odd looks and mutterings behind hands from her colleagues, and Rush found himself the recipient of more well-wishes than he’d ever had at all on his time aboard Destiny, which Eli found very amusing to watch as the older man clearly had no idea what to do with all the positivity and wishes of good luck that were now coming his way.

Most people were as astonished as Eli had been when they found out the actual status quo, but it soon passed. It made sense, they figured. They’d always stuck together ever since the beginning, and after all, Belle  _was_  the only person to whom Rush would capitulate. They were still professional, not suddenly starting to kiss or hug in the console room, but now that he was watching them more closely, Eli could see the little tell-tale signs of their relationship in other ways they interacted; in the knowing looks and the secretive little smiles that passed between them.

He received the irrevocable proof late one evening when he came into the infirmary looking for pain relief for Chloe, who was on her period and having a bad time of it in the absence of Midol. Belle and Rush were in there with TJ, who’d found a new piece of Ancient medical equipment that appeared to be an ultrasound scanner, waving a small wand over Belle’s bump as flickering image appeared on the console screen above them, showing a faint picture, barely more than a wisp, of the baby.

“Everything looks fine to me,” TJ said. Eli noticed that Belle and Rush were holding hands. “Do you want to find out whether it’s a boy or a girl?”

Belle nodded. “If you can tell from that picture, then yes, please.”

“As far as I can see, he’s a boy. But don’t be surprised if I’m wrong.”

“A boy,” Belle whispered, and she looked over to Rush with such excitement on her face. Eli didn’t think he’d ever seen her so enthusiastic about anything, and considering how much enthusiasm Belle showed whenever she discovered a new useful plant on a planet, that was saying something.

“We’re going to have a son!” she said, and Rush just leaned over to kiss her.

Eli grabbed a little packet of the regular powdered leaves that TJ kept as everyday painkillers, and left them to it. This was a private moment between the prospective parents and TJ, and not one that he would be sharing with anyone. All the same, looking at them now, there could be absolutely no doubt that Rush and Belle were very much in love.


End file.
